Investing

6 Meme Stock Movers for 9/2: AMC, DiDi, Lucid, Skillz, Support.com, Vinco Ventures

Paul Ausick

Published: September 2, 2021 9:18 am

Last Updated: September 2, 2021 12:13 pm

The major stock indexes didn’t move much one way or the other on Wednesday, although the Nasdaq Composite managed to squeeze out another record high. Investors were mostly interested in defensive sectors like real estate and utilities, but three tech biggies (Apple, Facebook and Google) posted new all-time highs. Meme stocks closed the day mixed as well, with a couple of big losers and a couple of big winners.

Thursday’s premarket wasn’t showing much action either. The major indexes were up a little, while investors and traders wait for the weekly report on new claims for unemployment insurance, second-quarter productivity and the U.S. trade balance. Meme stocks were mostly tracking the overall markets, posting modest gains or losses.

One exception is Support.com Inc. (NASDAQ: SPRT). The stock dropped by more than 23% Wednesday and investors appear determined to take a portion of that back Thursday. Shares traded up nearly 10% in the premarket to $26.35. Proxy advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis on Wednesday recommended that shareholders vote in favor of the company’s proposed merger with bitcoin miner Greenidge. A special shareholders’ meeting is scheduled for next week to vote on the transaction.

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC) dropped 7.3% on Wednesday following a downgrade from Hold to Underperform by analyst Chad Beynon at Macquarie Group. The firm has a price target of $6 on the stock, about 85% lower than AMC’s closing price Wednesday. Shares traded up less than 1% in Thursday’s premarket.

Lucid Group Inc. (NASDAQ: LCID) closed down nearly 11% Wednesday. The insider lock-up period expired Wednesday and trading volume soared from a daily average of around 13.3 million to nearly 150 million. Shares were up about 1.2% early Thursday.

Skillz Inc. (NYSE: SKLZ) added about 3.7% on Wednesday and traded up a bit more than 1% in Thursday’s premarket. Volume soared in Skillz stock as well, with nearly 104 million shares traded compared to a daily average of around 16 million. More than 58 million shares of the company’s stock are shorted, representing 24% of the total float. Retail investors may be trying to turn around what has so far been a winning play for short sellers, who are up $420 million in mark-to-market profits on Skillz stock so far in 2021.

Vinco Ventures Inc. (NASDAQ: BBIG) jumped by about 15.6% on Wednesday, adding to what has likely been a short squeeze on a stock that has been heavily shorted. Wednesday, we outlined what Vinco is and how its stock has performed in the past two weeks. The stock traded down about 4.5% in Thursday’s premarket.

DiDi Global Inc. (NYSE: DIDI) added nearly 12% to its stock price Wednesday. The Chinese ride-hailing company has been ordered by the country’s regulators to correct past misconduct, including “illegal operations, disrupt the fair competition market order, and affect the safety and stability of the industry, [and D]amage the legitimate rights and interests of drivers and passengers” (via Google Translate).

DiDi tried to forestall the directive last week by creating a union to help the government implement new rules to stop the exploitation of the company’s drivers. Apparently, the government was not sufficiently impressed.

Trading volume of around 44 million shares Wednesday fell short of the daily average of more than 55 million. In Thursday’s premarket, DiDi shares traded up about 1.2% at $9.32.